Vincent Pastore, the Italian-American actor from New York who played the legendary Salvatore ‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero in The Sopranos, has died. He was 80 years old.

Pastore was a former club owner in New Rochelle, New York. He became friends with Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon – two of his regulars – who convinced him to try acting. He was in his forties when he got into the business. He died with nearly 200 film credits to his name (including Flodder in Amerika!).

In 1990, he had a small role in GoodFellas (credited as ‘Man with Coatrack’), one of the greatest gangster films ever made. That year marked the start of the decade of the mob movie, and Pastore appeared in many of them: State of Grace, New Jack City, Carlito’s Way, Sugar Hill, Gotti, The Last Don, A Brooklyn State of Mind, and Witness to the Mob.

In 1999, he was cast in The Sopranos as Big Pussy Bonpensiero, one of Tony Soprano’s crew members. His character’s name was based on a real gangster, apparently – something show creator David Chase had picked up somewhere. In fact, there were two Pussys in the mob: Big Pussy and Little Pussy. This became one of the big mob jokes in the pilot episode:

HESH: I hear Junior wants to whack Pussy Bonpensiero?
TONY: Pussy Malanga.
HESH: Oh, Little Pussy?
TONY: Yeah, Little Pussy. What, you think he’s gonna fuck with Big Pussy? My Pussy?

In the first season, Big Pussy became one of the leading characters. Then, in episode 11, Tony is told by a corrupt cop on his payroll that Pussy is a rat. A heartbroken Tony tells his soldier Paulie to go and check, and after a tense confrontation, Pussy flees.

Later that season, Tony suspects the cop was actually referring to Jimmy Altieri, another “fat fuck with black hair”, and Jimmy is killed on Tony’s orders. Pussy is exonerated, but he remains on the run, fearing his friends want to whack him.

When season one became a phenomenal success, fans wondered what happened to Pussy. David Chase realized he had to bring him back for season two. And so Pussy returns – only for us to quickly discover he’s working with the FBI to get Tony indicted. The way Tony eventually discovers this, and deals with it, leads to my favorite moment in The Sopranos in my favorite television episode of all time, from any show.

He would always remain famous for this role. I remember him coming on the ‘Talking Sopranos’ podcast, telling the story of how he took his grandchildren to the zoo and people recognized him: “Hey, it’s Pussy!”

So, 26 years after his fictional death in Funhouse, now Pussy has joined Tony (James Gandolfini) and Paulie (Tony Sirico) in Tony’s heaven crew.

Rest in peace, my friend.

Read some of Big Pussy’s best lines on The Sopranos here.